NASA, City Officials Confer on Center

Cambridge city officials returned from the Nation's Capital on Friday with a pledge that the Federal Government will not make any unilateral decision on the future use of NASA's Kendall Square electronics research center.

National Aeronautics and Space Administrator Thomas O. Paine agreed that NASA Chief Counsel Spencer Bearsford would begin meeting weekly with Robert F. Rowland, executive director of the Cambridge Redevelopment Authority (CRA), to discuss the future of the $36 million complex. Because of cuts in the NASA budget, the space agency is going to vacate the research center by June 30.

City officials had been angered- by Paine's original announcement on the closing of the center, which implied that the Federal Government would decide what to do with the facility with out consulting the City. "We will find some other government use for the center or put it on the auction block," Paine had said at the time.

"I told Paine that NASA's conduct to date had been completely irresponsible. We wanted to make sure that the space agency understood that the ultimate disposition of the property would be by joint agreement between NASA and Cambridge," City Manager James L. Sullivan said after Friday's meeting with Paine. Sullivan, Paine, and members of the CRA conferred behind closed doors.

The research center was built under an urban renewal contract with Cambridge. The contract specifies that the land is to be used by NASA; any alternate use would require public hearings and approval by the City Council. The facility currently occupies 14.8 across; another 14.2 acres were to have been deeded to the space agency under the contract. The so- called "Golden Triangle" - another 13 acres of the urban renewal project- had been reserved for private business firms.

Government Tenant

Sullivan said that Paine had promised to try and find another government agency to occupy the facility. The space administrator was "not optimistic" about the possibility of finding such a tenant, Sullivan said, but added that the chances of this should be clearer in several weeks, after President Nixon finishes reviewing the 1971 budget.

Use by the Federal Aviation Administration or for research on environmental problems are the two most commonly-suggested government alternatives for the facilities future. To date, however, no federal agency has express-ed more than a vague interest in using the center.

"We're not interested in any rather mundane use such as HUD office buildings," Sullivan said. "We want the buildings to be used either as the economic generator they were intended for, or to be tax producing."

The City Manager also said he was interested in the possibility of a "combined development"- including low income housing. government facilities, and private business- over the whole of the 42 acre urban renewal site. Last week, he appointed a task force to study the possibilities for use of the site; the group is currently beginning a series of public meetings on the problem.